important than ref knew. i knowtheeconomyissoft. therefore revenues is soft. why aren't earnings much more important? why is wall street so obsessed with the revenues? >> the good news, larry, is that even though they talk about the revenue a lot and complain a lot about the revenues, the stock market -- we hit all-time highs this year, and we're up basically for four years in a row now, and that tells me that underneath all of this complaining and fear profits really do matter, and if you look at after hours tonight, i mean, who knows what will happen tomorrow, but the companies that beat on the profits are on the upside tonight in after-hours trading. >> profits are the mother's milk of stocks, i've said it before and revenues are not the mer's milk of stocks. profits are. >> that's absolutely true. isn't it also true, brian, that when you look at fact that in general earnings are coming in pretty good for a large number of companies, we still look at -- look like the best looking girl at the dance, especially when you compare us to other part of the world like europe? >> that's abs